Interpreter need (language discordance) is not significantly associated with postoperative complication rates

Narrative synthesis #

This is an exposure-contrast claim for postoperative complications: interpreter need (a marker of language discordance) was not significantly associated with complication rates. In a matched single-institution TSA cohort, the interpreter cohort had numerically more complications at both 30 days (9.8% vs 2.4%, P = .36) and 90 days (14.6% vs 4.9%, P = .26), but neither difference reached significance (Kunze/Kyle 2023). Critically, the authors state the study was not powered to detect complication differences, so this null should not be read as evidence of no effect — the numerically higher interpreter-cohort rate is directionally consistent with a discordance harm the design could not confirm. This is the complication-specific counterpart to the same paper's significant discharge-disposition finding. The certainty/GRADE appraisal is left for expert review.

"Likewise, no statistically significant association was found between 90-day complication rates and interpreter use, with a total of 6 cumulative complications documented for the interpreter cohort and 2 cumulative complications for the non-interpreter cohort (P = .26)." (Kunze, 2023, p. 89)

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